Sermoneta
# Sermoneta

Sermoneta is a hill town and comune in the province of Latina (Lazio), central Italy.

It is a walled hill town, with a 13th-century Romanesque church, the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta (sometimes erroneously called a cathedral) and a massive castle, built by the Caetani family. The Cistercian Valvisciolo Abbey is located nearby. The churches of San Giuseppe (mainly 16th century) and San Michele (mainly 12th century) still stand.

A Jewish community engaged in the commerce of fish and lending is attested there from the 13th to the 16th centuries, when the community was removed following Pope Pius V's papal bull of expulsion, Hebraeorum gens sola (1569), which restricted Jewish residency to Rome and Ancona.

Sermoneta is the hometown of the humanist Aldo Manuzio and eighteenth-century painter Antonio Cavallucci.

Scenes of the 2007 film Silk featuring Keira Knightley were filmed in Sermoneta.

The 2015 short film Italian Miracle was filmed in the town.

In 1978, an episode of Return of the Saint was filmed there: the town was known as Santa Maria.

## Notable residents

* Girolamo Siciolante (1521-1575), painter;
* Fabritio Caroso (1526/1535 – 1605/1620), Renaissance dancing master, poet, and author of dancing manuals;
* Antonio Cavallucci (1752–95), painter;
* Ubaldo Righetti (1963- ), retired football player;
* Cesare Battisti (1954- ), ex terrorist;
* Elena Santarelli (1981- ), actress;

## Twin towns

* Arborea, Italy
* Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye, France
* Atalanti, Greece
